Donohue: 'I'm trying to be very positive'

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Tom Donohue spoke with POLITICO at the Chamber's headquarters.
Reuters

Chamber’s campaign for free enterprise

“We think we need to remind, encourage, educate and let people know what created the greatest economy in the history of the world – more jobs, more innovation, the whole nine yards. And we think if we sort of remind people of that and hang it up on the wall for everybody to see, figuratively, we might make some better decisions as we go forth in the months and years ahead as we try and fix the economy.”

How he feels

“Actually, I feel pretty good. I’ve been around a long time. I think we’re doing what I fundamentally believe is right. Do we always use the right language? Do we always say the right sentence? Probably not. But I think we’ve picked the right issues, I think we’re doing what’s right. I’ve got extraordinary support from our board and from the business community. And, by the way, we can lose a few more members because members come and go all the time. But we’re growing in the middle of a recession.”

Chamber input to the White House

“Well you’ve got two kinds of input. It’s input under the radar screen…Our folks talk to the White House people all the time. We’ve got trade people, we’ve got folks working the national security, we have events going on, we’ve got Cabinet members here all the time. And then there’s the street level of education. We put out a press release, they put out a press release. We take a public position, we say something on the Hill, I give a speech, he gives a speech. That’s a form of communication. They do the same thing. What I’ve told the people here is: We don’t want to go anywhere near marginalizing the White House – it would be the worst thing we could do for our country. We want to strengthen the president. We reserve the right to disagree with some of the policies. I’m trying to be very positive.”

The White House and Fox News

“If I were over there, I would have looked at who’s watching Fox before I did that. Sure, they’ve got some outspoken sort of folks over there. But my understanding is most of the independents are watching Fox. It’s entertaining. And on cable news, their audience is bigger than all of the other audiences put together. You remember the old adage a thousand years ago don’t fight these guys who buy ink by the barrel. Fox is everywhere. If I were running the [White House], I’d be trying to figure out a way to do it with them in a fun way and get on in and talk to their people.”

Rush Limbaugh

“Rush is a personality. Two things I don’t do around here: We don’t get into the social issues. We’re not hammering abortion and school prayer and all that. And you don’t get into all the dueling personalities…How do we sell stuff to the 95 percent of the people that live somewhere else. That’s what we’re into.”